Characterization of ion-exchanged waveguides in tungsten tellurite and zinc tellurite Er3+-doped glasses

Among the various materials currently being investigated for further development of Er3+-doped waveguide amplifiers (EDWAs), tellurite glasses are gaining attention because of their broad emission band around 1.5 mum. We report our results on the fabrication of optical waveguides in two kinds of these glasses. Tungsten-tellurite and zinc-tellurite glasses containing sodium and doped with various Er2O3 percentages have been prepared and characterized. The Judd-Ofelt analysis was carried out on some of these glasses. Experimentally, broad emission and absorption bands corresponding to transition between I-4(13/2)<---->I-4(15/2) were observed as expected. Lifetimes of the I-4(13/2) level were also measured. Ion-exchanged planar waveguides were successfully obtained in both types of glasses and characterized by the prism coupling technique; the diffusion process was investigated for the different erbium ion concentrations. All the measured characteristics indicate that both these tellurite glasses are promising for the development of broadband integrated optical amplifiers. (C) 2003 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.